E. J. Sullivan was one of the most important illustrators working in the 1890s, the 1900s, and through into the 1920s. He grew up in Hastings, being taught drawing by his father Michael Sullivan, an art teacher. He came to London to work for the new Daily Graphic, which appeared for the first time in 1890. Subsequently, he worked on various magazines including the English Illustrated Magazine and The Pall Mall Budget, where he met Frances Louise Williams, whom he later married.
Sullivan illustrated upwards of 20 books, most notably Lavengro, a Tom Brown's Schooldays, The Compleat Angler, all in 1896, a much-admired Sartor Resartus by Carlyle in 1898, Tennyson's A Dream of Fair Women in 1900, and a two volume Pilgrim's Progress in 1901. Of his later work, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1913) is the most impressive. He also wrote two books on illustration in the 1920s.
Apart from illustration, Sullivan was a watercolourist, etcher an